The Boswell of Beverly Hills: A Historian of Homes

David Silverman had discovered a gold nugget. It came in the form of party notes kept by Edie Goetz, the late Hollywood socialite and hostess. There in the handwriting of the daughter of Louis B. Mayer were the names of famous guests (Mr. and Mrs. James Stewart; Miss Olivia de Havilland), the food served (suckling pig; potage Saint-Germain) and the movies screened (on Jan. 15, 1983, “Gandhi”) at dinner parties dating back to the 1940s.

“She wrote down the food so she wouldn’t repeat it,” Mr. Silverman said, looking over the notes. He added, with awe, “The guest list is incredible. There are binders filled with pages like this.”

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An Architectural Digest feature from April 1992 on the home of William Goetz, from the files of David Silverman.Credit

The party notes, obtained from a grandson of Ms. Goetz, would provide just the sort of granular, insider detail to enliven “300 Delfern Drive,” the book Mr. Silverman was researching and writing about the Goetz House in Holmby Hills.

He had incorporated similar historical tidbits into his previous books, like “716 North Palm Drive,” which reprinted a 1934 issue of Motion Picture magazine with interior photos of the house in Beverly Hills, then owned by the actress Adrienne Ames.

“That article was one of the best things I’ve ever found,” he said. “And then the house was also in Elle Décor decades later. So I was able to compare the before and after.”

Mr. Silverman has carved out a novel role as the James Boswell of architecture in Beverly Hills and other exclusive Los Angeles enclaves. His vanity books tell of the Tudor revivals and Spanish colonials that played host to Golden Age movie stars and moguls, house histories written for a limited readership of the famous and wealthy who currently own them. The books are not sold on Amazon or at bookstores, but rather meticulously crafted as bespoke tomes for clients seeking to learn more about the rarefied worlds they inhabit.

Benedikt Taschen, the German publisher and architecture buff, recently hired Mr. Silverman to write books for two of his homes: the Chemosphere, the John Lautner-designed midcentury masterpiece in the Hollywood Hills, and 1050 Summit Drive, the 1930s Beverly Hills estate built by David O. Selznick, the producer and studio executive. Mr. Taschen is restoring the Selznick home to its original grandeur and hopes Mr. Silverman can assist with the project.

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David O. Selznick, his wife, Irene, and their sons, Daniel, left, and Jeffrey, outside their Beverly Hills home in 1944.CreditJohn Florea/The LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty Images.

So far, Mr. Silverman has completed four books, with seven more in the works. He charges $7,500 and up depending on the time required. He had been moonlighting from his job at Sony Pictures, where for 19 years he worked as a contracts lawyer. Tired of battling with talent agents, and encouraged by the response to his books, however, Mr. Silverman, 50, quit in June to devote full attention to LA House Histories, his one-man operation.

“This is so rewarding and fulfills so many of my interests that I felt I couldn’t pass it up,” he said, adding, “I don’t think anyone in the country does books like this, certainly not in Los Angeles.”

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David Silverman at his sister’s home in Holmby Hills.CreditEmily Berl for The New York Times

Mr. Silverman was sitting with his complete works spread before him in the dining room of a beautiful French Normandy house in Holmby Hills. The stone house, which belonged to his sister, Dana Slatkin, was perched atop a hill, with landscaped grounds tumbling down the slope. Curious about a bronze plaque in her garden that said “Mille Fleur,” or thousand flowers, Mr. Silverman decided to research the home and present his findings to Ms. Slatkin as a birthday gift, making his sister his first client. But he got so caught up in the project that he gave her a 157-page hardcover book, which included a newspaper article that explained the sign: The original owner was an accomplished gardener and Francophile.

“All we knew at the time was the house was built in 1926. And we knew who the last owner was because they sold it to us,” said Ms. Slatkin, a chef and entrepreneur. “It’s an incredible connection to your home and to history. And in a larger existential sense, you realize we’re just passing through.”

That first book created the template: Each chapter focuses on a previous homeowner, in chronological order, and is padded with archival photos, old newspaper and magazine clippings and anecdotes, culled from online databases like archive.org, libraries, books, vintage issues of Architectural Digest, public records and firsthand sources like relatives.

To learn more about the Selznick estate, Mr. Silverman contacted Daniel Selznick, David O. Selznick’s last surviving child, now 82 and living in the Motion Picture & TV Relief Fund Home in Woodland Hills, Calif. “I picked him up and drove him over there, and as we’re driving, he’s pointing to all these houses: ‘This person used to live there. Charlie Chaplin lived across the street from them.’ You always hear about these actors and executives, and they’re mythic characters. It becomes real.”

The more history that’s attached to a house, the more famous its owners and houseguests, generally the more involved the project. Mr. Silverman’s magnum opus is “A History of 209 Rockingham Avenue,” which he subtitled “The House That Shirley Built,” referring to Shirley Temple’s one-time Brentwood home.

The book ballooned to 246 pages after he got involved with members of a Facebook group devoted to the child actress, who flooded him with esoterica, including grainy news footage from a 1967 public auction of the house (the book reprints stills).

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A custom house biography about the home of Shirley Temple.CreditEmily Berl for The New York Times

Mr. Silverman himself tracked down a 1927 aerial photo of Brentwood, interviewed Ms. Temple’s first stand-in and invited her and others to a Shirley-themed house party he organized to celebrate the child star’s life. He can’t resist going down such rabbit holes; indeed, it’s become his calling card.

“He’s an excellent researcher, and I think he gets great pleasure out of it,” said Joyce Rey, a veteran Beverly Hills real estate agent who has hired him.

“I had always heard that Liz Taylor had lived there,” Ms. Rey said. “But David authenticates and enhances the information.”

Mr. Silverman has begun to offer such market research beyond the house history books. And while the histories have the plain look of school textbooks (he designs them himself), he recently raised his game. For a client who commissioned him to profile 39 Oakmont Drive, or Los Vientos, a Cliff May-designed house in Brentwood, he hired a bookbinder to create a handsome linen box, which he filled with photographs, architectural drawings and aerial photos.

As for his own home, Mr. Silverman lives with his dog in Brentwood, in a 1950s ranch whose undistinguished history, he said, wouldn’t make for an interesting book. More fertile territory is in the so-called Platinum Triangle, the wealthy enclaves of Bel Air, Holmby Hills and Beverly Hills, whose large homes, with their celebrity residents over many decades, suggest stories on every palm-tree-lined block.

Mr. Silverman left his sister’s house and took a reporter for a spin around the area. The Selznick estate that Mr. Taschen was restoring was a five-minute drive through windy, lushly manicured streets.

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The book jacket for ‘Landscaping the American Dream,’ 1989, about the designer Florence Yoch, and featuring her work for David O. Selznick.Credit

Pulling up to the security gate, Mr. Silverman explained that the property had been subdivided over the years, but he’d tracked down the original plan by Florence Yoch, a landscape designer, that showed “this vast lawn that sloped down to a tennis court and pool.”

He pointed out the second-floor master bedroom, where, he’d learned, on stuffy nights David O. Selznick pushed a button from his bed to open electric windows. A floor below was the projection room, where movies were screened on Sunday nights.

Mr. Silverman spoke once again of touring the home with Danny Selznick, who’d grown up there — a memorable experience for the archivist. “Danny would say, ‘This is where Cary Grant sat. Dad had his Oscars on this shelf.’ It was just bringing the house to life.”